Believe it or not, moving your pet to Spain requires more work than moving your children does—at least when it comes to paperwork. As long as you include your children’s individual applications, medical certificates of good health, and their birth certificates in your visa application, they’ll also have visas. However, once you arrive in Spain things get a little trickier.
Young children adapt to new cultures with mind-boggling ease and they pick up new languages at breakneck speed. Yet adolescents and teenagers tend to struggle a little bit. At the risk of sounding like Oprah, I’ll point out a few things that might make the transition easier. First, think back to the time when you were a teenager. Do you remember adults telling you that those years would be the best of your life and blah, blah, blah? What a bill of goods. Anyone who’s made the volatile transition from childhood to adulthood remembers that it’s anything but easy, and an upheaval like a move into another culture will have its rocky moments—initially, anyway.
Rather than trying to amp up your children’s enthusiasm for Spain by asking them to build shoe-box dioramas of the country’s great historical moments and dragging them through one museum after another, pursue things that they’ll actually enjoy. Once they’re having fun and meeting people, their excitement about the move will build naturally.
Extracurricular activities are well provided for in the international schools. After the school day ends, students usually have a range of activities available such as sports, music, dance, and various interest-based clubs. If you’re looking for classes outside of school, you’ll also find schools offering dance, martial arts, and the like. The municipal civic centers are also a good place to begin looking for activities, and they usually have a few classes that cater to kids.
Give them time to hang out online and just instant message with their friends. And doing something as simple as buying a soccer ball may lead your kid to take it into a plaza, begin kicking it around, and come home with a few new friends.
